studying and approving transport schemes. This resulted in the disqualification of the monorail from any state assistance. In 2007 federal budget, the sum of 82 Billion Rials was dedicated to the completion for the Monorail by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration. The Monorail is not supported by the current Tehran mayor, and the current head of Tehran Metro, Mr. Hashemi, whom have asked for the budget allocated to the Monorail to be redistributed for other public transport projects, such as expansion of Metro lines. In September 2007, Iran Daily reported that the Tehran monorail project will become operational by 2011. This was quoted by the Deputy Interior Minister for development affairs Mehdi Hashemi. It further added that the monorail lines would extend across the capital, the Persian daily ’Iran’ reported. He continued that the routes for monorail lines in the metropolis have been specified as follows: from Basij Square in the southeast to Tehran Pars in the northeast, from Tehran Pars to Pounak Square in the northwest, from Pounak to Nematabad in the south and from Nematabad to Basij Square again. See also Tehran Tehran Metro List of monorails References External links Railway Transport Industries Development Corporation (in Persian) Transport in Tehran Rail transport in Iran Cancelled monorails Proposed transport infrastructure in Iran